DSA disk drive head suspensions and disk drives incorporating DSA suspensions are generally known and commercially available. By way of example, one embodiment of a DSA head suspension 10 is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. The illustrated DSA suspension includes a baseplate 12, a hinge 14 or spring region, a load beam 16, and integrated lead flexure 18 with traces 20. The baseplate 12 includes a proximal portion 50, a distal portion 52, and a linkage portion 54 connecting the proximal portion 50 and the distal portion 52. The hinge 14 is mounted to hinge mounting portion of the baseplate 12 (at the distal portion 52) and extends from the distal end of the baseplate 12. The load beam 16 is mounted to the distal end of the hinge 14. The flexure 18 is mounted to the load beam 16, typically on the side of the load beam 12 mounted to the hinge 14. Weld spots 22 are typically used to join these components. The baseplate 12, the hinge 14, and the load beam 16 are typically formed from metal such as stainless steel. While these support components are discussed as separate elements, some or all of the baseplate 12, hinge 14, and load beam 16 can be formed from a single or multiple support elements. The flexure 18 typically includes a base layer of stainless steel. The copper or copper alloy traces 20 on the flexure 18 are separated from the stainless steel base layer by a layer of polyimide or other insulator.
The whole head suspension 10 can be moved to scan the head slider 19 over a spinning disk by a head suspension actuation system (shown further herein) that connects to the baseplate 12 as is known in the art. While movement of the whole head suspension 10 by the head suspension actuation system provides relatively course position control of a head slider 19, a second stage actuation functionality of the illustrated DSA head suspension 10 is incorporated into the baseplate 12 to control finer sway adjustments. Microactuations along the head suspension 10 produced by microactuating motors 26, as further described herein, can provide relatively fine positioning adjustment of the head slider 19. As shown, the baseplate 12 has one or more motor-receiving areas or openings 24 (two in the illustrated embodiment). Motors 26 are mounted to the baseplate 12 in the motor-receiving openings 24. The motors 26 are mounted to tabs 28 extending from the baseplate 12 into the motor-receiving openings 24, however other mounting options are possible. In the illustrated DSA suspension 10, the tabs 28 are portions of the hinge 14. In other embodiments (not shown), the tabs 28 to which the motors 26 are mounted can be other components such as a separate motor plate welded to the baseplate 12. In some other embodiments, the motors 26 can be mounted on the load beam 16. Epoxy or other adhesive is typically used to mount the motors 26 to the tabs 28 or other component.
The motors 26 comprise a generally planar element with a length (e.g., along a longitudinal axis) and a width. The motors 26 can be any suitable type of microactuator. For example, the motors 26 can each be a piezoelectric (PZT) microactuator, which may include a piezoelectric layer of lead zirconium titanate, polymers such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), or other piezoelectric or electrostrictive types of materials. As will be appreciated, each motor 26 includes terminals (not shown) for electrically coupling the motor 26 to a power supply.
DSA suspensions in accordance with this disclosure can be embodied in still other forms. For example, other DSA suspensions are described in the Okawara U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0067151, the Shum U.S. Patent Publication No. 2012/0002329, the Fuchino U.S. Patent Publication No. 2011/0242708, and the Imamura U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,444, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and for all purposes.
There remains a continuing need for improved DSA suspensions. One area of improvement concerns improving the capability disk drives to responsively move the head slider 16 to follow rapid changes in a command input signal. The suspensions should also be capable of being efficiently manufactured.